Pyramid Lake Fish Ladder

A few weeks ago my friend Tara and I took our gaggle of kids out to Pyramid Lake to have a tour of the fish ladder. It was a cold, windy, grey, and wet day without any fish ready to go up into the Truckee River but it was still a great outing! We learned about the native variety of trout, the Lahontan cutthroat trout (threatened) along with the native Cui-ui a lakesucker (endangered). 

After touring the fish ladder facility with an awesome Dept. of Wildlife Ranger we went over to Popcorn beach to see the pelicans waiting on the fish and to have a bit of a picnic. There were a ton of pelicans and we learned that one of the small islands there is the largest pelican rookery in North America! Popcorn Rock is a bulbous tufa formation like the pyramid in the lake that it is named for!

Schooling Around Town!

I thought I had a couple pictures of school around the house but mostly I found pictures of us schooling around town! We are mostly homebody schoolers but we do get to do some fun stuff around town too!

We got the amazing and FREE opportunity to see the Reno Philharmonic preform Peter & the Wolf! It is one of our FAVORITE music pieces! They even got the mascot form UNR to come out and capture the narrator (an anchor from the local news channel) at the end.

I was so overwhelmed to have the opportunity for my kids to hear this beautiful music performed right in front of them. I still get teary!

We've also gotten over to Ox Bow Nature Preserve a couple of times, it is one of our favorite nature walks plus the critters are always fun! The beaver dams and beaver chewed trees are among our favorites to spot!

Here is one from our backyard! Here are the kids making a village as we learned about the beginnings of Rome.

And of course we have been to the river! It is one of those places we go to unwind, or windup, wear out or calm down. Plus it is a great place to school! Leili and I were reading Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe and then Leili and Dad made a little boat to float in the river!

Inside, outside, here or there!

Lantern Walk

 

 

The stars alined (& the rain paused) so we got to use the lanterns we made for the lantern walk. It was beautiful to see all the kids walking with just their lighted lanterns and then to sit around the bonfire and sip warm apple cider. What a beautiful night!

Did you see...

Did you see the super moon? Did you take the time to walk outside?
We did.
We planned it and talked about it. We met with friends and waited. We are high here in Reno so we had to wait until it got over the mountains to our east.
Minutes before it peaked we could see its glow! The kids were amazed the moon could make so much light. And then it crested the mountain. It was beautiful and big and bright.
I love that my family can watch this kind of celestial phenomenon and be awed. Awed at our Father's creations, awed that nature can provide such a spectacular and beautiful sight. And awed that in the dark you can find so much happiness just being together!
We're ready for Sunday's annular eclipse! And ready for more awe!
Yeah for life learning as jake would say!

Bierstadt

I am always excited when I find out something has stuck in the kids brains, to me it means they are enjoying or find our studies interesting!

We continue doing Artist Study even though I do not put the pictures up on the side bar any longer (it was a pain to get up!). This last trimester we have been looking at paintings by Albert Bierstadt, the intrest was first piqued when they learned he was German the second because of his subject matter.

Bierstadt was an explorer and in the 1800's where was the frontier? Right here in our back yard! The Sierra Nevadas were a large portion of his paintings. Plus he is a beautiful artist, he paints in the romantic style but was also considered an luminism because of the use of light in them.

The fun came when during our trip down the 395 last month, we stayed overnight in a hotel with the usual hotel furnishings. But then Riley noticed... above the beds were prints of what appeared to be Bierstadt's paintings! Riley pointed out why he thought they were his and my proud homeschool mama heart swelled!

It is the sweet days that make it all worth it!

Mono Lake

The kids and I drove down and made a stop at Mono Lake. What a strangely beautiful place it is! They have a great new (at least new since I was last there years ago) State Park Visitor Center. They have some really interesting displays not only about the lake itself but also about the Native people who lived there.

One of our favorite exhibits was three ordinary salt shakers one with about 1/2 inch of salt which represented the ocean, one with about 1 inch of salt which represented the Great Salt Lake, and the third with almost 2 inches of salt, that one represented Mono lake! It is crazy salty, believe us we tasted it!

We also learned why there are bubbles anywhere the waves lap up (it is super windy so there are small waves), and we have a recipe to make our own Mono water:

1 quart fresh water

2 1/2 Tbsp. salt

5 Tbsp. baking soda

2 tsp. epsom salts

a pinch of borax

a pinch of detergent

The baking soda or calcium carbonate is what forms the tufas that make mono lake so interesting to see! After Jake's legs dried they were white from all the dried salt on his feet!

The small islands in mono lake are breeding grounds for the California Gulls. They fly all the way from the Pacific ocean to lay eggs here. Also out in the middle you can see the atoll of a former volcano.

This was a wonderful stop on our very volcanic adventure!!

Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve

Friends of Mono Lake Reserve 

My Visit to Mono Lake

We are back! Thank goodness that did not last as long as I thought it might! Mostly because we did not have to replace the computer just the hard drive. Thank goodness for self learning husbands! ;)

While I was away from the computer we had a most deliciously warm day! So we did our school work quickly and headed to the nature center near our home. I am not sure there is a better way to learn than by being outside in an unstructured way! The kids threw rocks in the river, they ran and yelled. We soaked up as much vitamin D as possible and we ate outside (which I just love to do)! It was lovely!!

If you have not read Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. PLEASE DO! He has a new one out that I can't wait to get my hands on!

Well you all know we have lived in a few states, and they all have fun and weird things we have enjoyed. But I have to say Nevada has one I have never even considered but is actually a really cool thing EVERY state should do in my simple opinion!

NEVADA DAY!

What is Nevada day you ask? Well it is the day that Nevada was accepted into the Union. It is a state holiday, technically is is on Oct. 31 but they choose to have Friday off this year so we went on an adventure!

A homeschool group here planned a fun Nevada Day field trip to the Capitol. So the kids and I drove down to Carson City, it's about a 45 min drive through beautiful Washoe Valley!
We had a fun picnic, getting to know new homeschoolers and then one of the parents planned a little Nevada art project (I'll share that soon). The sun was warm and the kids ran until they could run no farther! Then we went into the Capitol building.

Leili was fast expiring, but we pressed on...

The first and second floor were open to walk through, we saw the Assembly room, Senate room, everything was just beautiful!

This is what is painted all around the ceiling of the first floor, and there are paintings of all the past governors (even the "Territorial" governors!

And my cuties (and unhappy babe) on the front steps of the capitol. It was great to learn a little bit more about this state that is our current home!!

And a couple of great articles to share! HERE and HERE!!